Week 21 - Hope

Week 21 - Hope

 Super crazy good week. I learned a lot about hope and how it is the antidote to discouragement. My companion Elder McCarl is a really spiritual guy. When I told him I was discouraged, he told me the next day that he felt inspired that I should read the parable of the vineyard in Jacob 5. He said "don't ask me why, I just felt like I should tell you." Well let me tell you, it was EXACTLY what I needed. I realized how much I could relate to the master of the vineyard when he sees bad fruit and asks, "What more could I have done?" I realized that when I feel sad when the people I love don't progress like I know they can even despite my best efforts, that that is exactly how the Lord sees me when I don't progress like I can. He cries when I don't make the decision to follow Him and be as happy as I could be. What I loved was how each time there was bad fruit, the master of the vineyard moved forward in hope and eventually there is good fruit. How grateful I am that the Savior has not once given up on me and not once will he ever say I'm not worth His effort. That's the kind of hope and patience I want to have. The way Paul puts it, "Ye that ploweth should plow in hope." No effort is wasted in proclaiming the gospel if it is done in faith with hope of the harvest in mind.

      An another note, Jimmy one of our investigators came to church!! Woot woot 🎊🎉 It was super awesome and he wants to meet like two or three times during the week! The guy is catching fire! 

Hope you all have an incredible week. 

Love,

Äldste Denton

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P.S. Aldste Denton also included this story in additional email......

Oh you ready for a story? 

So we had an investigator in church yesterday. Super Awesome. He also said he'd come to the YSA FHE tonight. His name is Jimmy. Anyways, it was our branch conference and the entire mission presidency was there since Sundsvall is part of a district not a stake. What a day for Jimmy to come to church, right? President Youngberg talked to him right before the meeting and then right after asked him if he had learned anything. So in Priesthood one of the members of the presidency started telling a story. He's from Göteborg or Gothenburg for the English speaking folks. Anyways, he served his mission in England at the exact same time as his twin brother who served in a different mission in England. The last six months of his mission, he got transfered outside of his mission boundaries to be a zone leader with his twin. During that transfer, Gordon B. Hinckley came and toured their mission. He spoke to all of them in a room together. He stopped in the middle of his address and looked right at these two brothers and said "You're the Mattson twins, aren't you." Then he said to everyone else in the room. "Excuse me while I talk to just these two for a minute." Then he told them that Sweden hadn't had much action for years. In the early days of the church, hundreds of thousands of saints came from Sweden to Salt Lake and it was one of the most successful spots for missionary work at that time. Then he told them "When you go back to Sweden, you tell them there's going to be a second harvest in Sweden that will be greater than the first." That was in 1972. These two spoke with President Hinckley in 1981 while serving as stake president and bishop or something when he came to visit and asked if he remembered them. He didn't recognize them at first, but when they told him who they were he said, " Yes I remember, and I remember what I said to you. That was inspiration and I'm sure it will happen. There will be a second harvest." He talked about millions of people joining and staying faithful to the end. He also mentioned a cleansing process that would proceed it. Then in 1997 President Eyring came to Sweden and I don't remember what for, but president Eyring was speaking to a big audience and in his talk he said "President Hinckley told me to say that there will be a second harvest in Sweden and he told me to say that it starts now. That those who believe it will happen will experience it and those who don't will miss out on its blessings." Since that time, there's been action in Sweden. Lots of congregations have shrunk, scores have become inactive, and some have apostatized from the church including this man's twin brother.  Doesn't this all sound like your reading the Book of Mormon? So I had heard all of these things before I even left actually. I didn't know any of the places or people, but when I got my call I got a letter from the mission office telling this story about the two twins and the promises of a second harvest and also a dedicatory prayer offered by Elder Monson in the 60's rededicating the land of Sweden for missionary work which promises a second harvest. Pretty intense right? It makes me think of Jacob 5 where when the master of the vineyard wanted good fruit, he would dig, dung, prune, graft, and cut off the evil branches in order to produce good fruit. That looks like exactly what's happening here. Especially in the mission. Standards are raising like crazy in our mission. Apparently this mission is totally different than it was even a year ago. The type of missionaries coming in are dedicated and right now there are sooo many young missionaries in the mission. President Younberg is new since the summer but he's already raised the standard of obedience wayy higher and keeps raising our sights. Elder Ballard also spoke to all of Europe after he had also made a visit to Stockholm in November or October and told everyone in Europe to believe in miracles and to shun apathy. He told us a story of calling down rain in Ethopia when he was a seventy. Also, I have had like four different members over the last two weeks ask me and my companion for one or more Books of Mormon to give to their friends. The members here are feeling the momentum. We also had a Sweden wide fast a few Sundays ago for missionary and reactivation work. We had a guy call us a few weeks ago who said "Hi I am a resting member of the church, but I want to come back. Can you help me with that?" He had an interview with president Youngberg on Saturday and now he's going to become an Elder in April. Hasn't missed a Sunday in over a month. 

I hope you understood some of that. But the point is, Sweden is seeing miracles, and it's going to see more. 

 

Love   

Äldste Denton 

Pictures this week

                                                   Fresh cuts

Trying to see if something was wrong with our church's receiver... couldn't see anything, but it was a cool picture!     

Week 20 - Nice Surprise

Week 20 - Nice Surprise


Helllooo you wonderful people.

Life is good here in Sundsvall. I am really starting to notice how much brighter it's getting. To steal a line from David Archuleta, "it's glorious". Yesterday in sacrament meeting the sun came shining in and made me have soo much energy, even though it was gone by the end of church. It has started to feel like days again instead of just one long night. I can't describe how exciting it is to realize that winter ends, but I can try. They celebrate this holiday here in April I think in honor of winter ending. PEOPLE LITERALLY LIGHT GIANT BONFIRES ALL OVER THE CITIES TO CELEBRATE. Needless, to say, spring is pretty awesome, and it's just around the cor-... wait no... sorry, getting ahead of myself here... it's in like two and a half months 😭 On the real though, winter here is beautiful. Especially when it gets to be below 0 F and you get freezing fog... that is so beautiful... You can see it glitter in the street lights, and when you wake up, everything is covered in a thick layer of frost. Also, there's this creepy mist that hangs out over the now totally frozen bay when it gets that cold, and that is magical. 

Top story for this week started out looking like a pretty empty day actually. We had one lesson and nothing else, which pretty much means lots of tracting and contacting people in town. I was not that excited honestly, but we went contacting in the morning anyways. There weren't very many people in town, and no one was interested and we came back for lunch. While my fingers were warming up I decided to read some out of one of my favorite books which I cannot recommend enough: "Adjusting to Missionary Life". (I bet you thought I was going to say the Book of Mormon. That is my other favorite book that I can't recommend enough) I read in the part about feeling discouraged. There was this advice that really helped me out when I read it. It told me to give myself extra credit for doing the things I wasn't excited about instead of being critical of myself for not enjoying it. That was really good advice. Then my companion could tell I was discouraged and told me about the patience that missionaries in the scriptures needed, and that some of the best missionaries in history were rejected and thrown in prison and that you can't control what people decide about us and our message. That was also really good advice and I was feeling a lot better now, which was good since we had a whole afternoon of tracting still. Then I have this idea to go to the church so we can do our companionship study finishing this broadcast we started earlier and so that we could come up with a really creative tracting plan. Turns out there's this party at the church where they're celebrating the 20th day of Christmas where the kids eat candy and dance away Christmas. (I love Swedish holidays 😂) Turns out at this party there's like a family of non-members. Turns out they were really interested in us and told us to come by sometime! Then we talked for like 40 minutes to the grandma and her sister and they told me if I come back to Sweden after my mission to give them a call and they would find me a Swedish wife... haha but the point is they were super nice and we had no idea this party existed and we ended up finding a family out of it! I really believe that we were led by the Spirit to find them. 

Hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Äldste Denton

                                                Snowed in...

                                        Creative finding techniques. 

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                                                "It's Hard to be Elvis in Uppsala"

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                                               ​We're gonna get big one day. I can feel it.   

Week 19 - Coldest Sacrament Meeting OF MY LIFE

So... Yesterday was church, and we were invited to go with a member to Östersund to visit the members out there and bring them the sacrament. Östersund is like two or three hours away which if you're like me and you like road tripping, that was like Christmas. So we agree. We decided to go on splits with the other Sundsvall Elders so that two of us could stay and sit with any investigators and that the other two could help out Brother Cartunen. So Elder Moss and I got to go. Anyways, we call all the members in Östersund, and none of them will be able to make it... except one. So we decided to just have it at his house. When Jesus talks about leaving the ninety and nine to go after the one, that is exactly what we did. So we arrive at this man's house and quickly realize that the heating elements in his house was either not on or not working. I'ts about 30-35 F in his house and his floor is like ice. We start the meeting and give the sacrament. Then Elder Moss, brother Cartunen and I all give our talks. By this time, we're all shivering and my toes are losing feeling. We close the meeting and Brother Cartunen announces that we will start Sunday School now. The man we went to visit hadn't said a thing about the cold and we were all wondering if he just thought it was normal, so not wanting to be rude, we don't mention it. But in between the two meetings, he says before we start Sunday school with the four of us, he's going to grab his jacket. This was a good enough excuse for me to grab my coat too. After Sunday school we had refreshments with nice cold drinks. We all ate the very Swedish refreshment of toast with caviar and cheese with cinnamon rolls while shivering. It was then that we found out that this man did not normally live like this, but his heater was just not working today, but I'll tell you what, that was by far the coldest sacrament meeting I have ever had. Also the smallest. The man was very touched though. He could really see that we loved him if we were willing to leave the branch to come to the middle of nowhere to minister to him. It was an awesome reminder to me that the Savior ministered to individuals, one by one.

Hope you all have a great week!

          We got our eyebrows done if you couldn't tell. One of the members coming in clutch.

Week 18 - Lame Snow "Storm" and My Swedish Grandparents

Week 18 - Lame Snow "Storm" and My Swedish Grandparents

Hey Everyone,

      First, my Swedish grandparents. As far as I know, we're not related, but Garth and Kristina are still my grandparents. They are the nicest and are always feeding us and talking our ears off. They are investigators and they say they really believe God has sent us to them. My new companion and I went swung by their house the other day and I was super excited to introduce them to Elder McCarl. We knock on their door and Garth asks "who is it?" through the door like always. Then he checks through the window just to make sure before letting us in and giving us both hugs. Then Elder McCarl pulls out a smart phone with a pink case and asks if it's theirs. It was Kristina's that she had apparently dropped. I didn't even realize Elder McCarl picked it up, but it was another testimony builder to them that we were heaven sent since we saved Kirstina's phone from freezing in the snow. Then we talked about the Book of Mormon. They were planning before Christmas to leave for Spain in January until March or April or something. Long story short, Kristina hurt her back just bad enough that they won't be able to go but not bad enough that she's in too much pain. But then they said that meant we could come by whenever, which is actually really great news. We are going to invite them to be baptized. 

      Okay and then the lame "storm". Yesterday in church they announced church would be ending an hour early so that we could travel home in time to be safe from this massive storm that was coming. I was pumped. I love storms. Snow storms especially. If this was the worst storm yet this winter, I could only imagine how good it was going to be. Not only that, but the mission president told the missionaries in Sundsvall and Örnsköldsvik I think to go home right after church and stay there. I was so excited to just watch the snow fly with a cup of hot chocolate and a Book of Mormon, so I get everything ready and wait... Not much action, so I start organizing some stuff and cleaning to pass the time... Nothing... The sun has been down for a few hours now and it's like 5... I see the stars outside.. no clouds... It's a little windy and that's it... It stays like that all night... So disappointing! If there's one thing I've learned from life, it's not to trust a storm warning. Well okay, if there's one thing I've learned, it's to follow the Spirit, but if I could pick two things I learned, the second would be not to trust a storm warning.  

    

Yes, Elder Cook is a district leader in Vendelsö near Stockholm now. My new companion
Äldste McCarl is cool. I think we're going to get along fine :) New approach for finding investigators is successful for sure, but usually not at getting investigators. What it does better though is gets people to open up and be honest with us an they usually have a really positive experience even if they're not interested to learn more.  Also, we're allowed to do family history here and there's resources I can only use while in Sweden so that is super cool. I am going to learn to use those to see if we have any Swedish blood in us.

Love you all and have a great week!

      Äldste Denton

                                                    My new companion and I.

 One day of being a trio in between transfers. Getting that three for two deal on sushi though...

                                                    How bright I wish it was at 3:30 P.M.

                                                   How bright it actually is at 3:30 P.M.

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                                                   Last pic mirror selfie with Elder Cook.

 Elder Cook finally graduated from Sundsvall. Last moments in the apartment with his famous Jesus wall in the background.

We finally heard from Carter. Here is his follow up letter about transfers.

Week 17 (continued) - Love you guys

Hey family here's some pictures from the past couple weeks. Hope you enjoy :) By the way transfers are happening and I 'm staying but I'm getting a new companion. His name is Elder McCarl. Elder Cook is leaving Sundsvall for Vendelsö. He is going from the biggest area in the mission to the second smallest. He will have to leave his area to go grocery shopping. In Sundsvall we can literally drive to Norway without leaving our area. Haha should be a shock for him. Anyways love you guys!

 My companion just found out he is going to be a district leader and has to plan district meetings now.

                           I guessed that he was going to be a district leader and I was right.

 This picture was taken the 30th of December and at that point, I hadn't seen the sun since December 22nd. I have not seen it again since. Also this picture was taken at noon.

                                                    Elder Moss is also in Sundsvall.

                                          IKEA brunch. (First time at IKEA!)

 I told you guys no one had fed us fish, and then I was fed fish like six time that next week. This was one of the particularly impressive "Julbord" meals we had. We ate salmon that was so good and fresh, that literally we ate it raw and it was delicious. We had all kinds of interesting Swedish things that meal.

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              My district leader in a bath robe eating a mint that cost more than what I ate for lunch.

                                                   Just chilling in the apartment.

We played this game where we would run at the ducks and once they all started flying, try to hit one with a snowball... We never got any but it was fun anyways.

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                                A nice ice dragon showed up in the middle of town one day.

Week 17 - Transfers?

We did not hear much from Carter today a little sentence is all. He had mentioned on Christmas last week that transfers were coming and that his companion had been in the area for a very long time and would probably be transferred. So I am guessing that today was the day.

Happy 2018! Make it the best ever!

Best wishes.